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Blue steel baking sheet

Anybody use one of these?. I just bought one, and it's seasoning in my oven, as I type this. I mainly bought it for Sicilian style pizza, and I'm hoping it works well for that (I plan on putting it on top of two standard baking stones, in a 550 oven). Any gotchas or suggestions?

In all seriousness, 1/16" thickness seems kind of thin. I don't know the thermodynamics of baking a pizza, but it's hard to imagine that it could retain heat as well as a really thick cast iron or brick. Are pizza pans normally that thin?

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

the Blue steel part is simply a finish applied. This is thick for a pan of this kind (the Matfer black steel pan is 1/32"). It's typical for the Sicilian pizza style. As said, it will go on very hot stones.

My go to sheet is Matfer ( http://www.amazon.com/Matfer-Bourgea...pd_sim_sbs_k_2 ) , it has good weight and takes a lot of abuse (they live in the ovens) and survive on the oiling that runs under baking parchment. Have even stacked 2 up and used them as a pizza stone with a lighter pan.

Lighter might be to your advantage here; better heat transference from the large heat source (the stone).

jacob, How did you make out with the pan? Curious if the pan changed its shape after putting the cold food on it while in the oven?

I haven't used it yet, I've only seasoned it so far. I'll probably do a test run on Friday, when my dough is ready. I'll report back!

Originally Posted by JCHine

My go to sheet is Matfer ( http://www.amazon.com/Matfer-Bourgea...pd_sim_sbs_k_2 ) , it has good weight and takes a lot of abuse (they live in the ovens) and survive on the oiling that runs under baking parchment. Have even stacked 2 up and used them as a pizza stone with a lighter pan.

Lighter might be to your advantage here; better heat transference from the large heat source (the stone).

Thanks for the info! Yeah, I had thought about the thickness thing, but if these are made of the same steel that Paderno uses for the carbon French pans, it should heat pretty efficiently, I think.

Jacob, As you know if you want true thin crust pizza cooking surface in a home oven, you've got to crank it (550 on convection) and hold it for at least 20 min. before cooking.

I think your pan is going to warp/twist while in the oven do to the specific differences in the baking stone, metal pan and food to be cooked.

Considering the baking stone and baking pan will cool at different rates, with the steel cooling faster, when you place something cold like a pizza in the pan, its going your going to effect the temperature of the steel pan, which will be at odds with the baking stone. I did horrible in physics, but it has to do with thermal mass and how the mass of an object is changed based on the way it responds to a change in temperature.

Someone with a heavier brain can fill in the details ( Zeiefle). When this happens, the pan will want to change its shape quickly (mass being effected by its relationship to a change in heat. When it first happen to me it scared the **** out of me. You'll hear a jarring pop, that ones intuitively knows something isn't right. HA

I'm curious, maybe your pan is thick enough? The information I provide above is empirical and based on me reproducing this experiment with a seasoned shallow 2.0~2.2mm Carbon De Buyer roasting pan.

I am not going to use this pan for thin crust pizza (I have a cordierite stone for that, and I plan on getting a steel plate). All the reviews of the pan I read that mentioned warpage said that it didn't twist unless you put frozen food in, which I won't be doing. I make sourdough pizza dough, and it will be brought to room temp before it goes into the oven.

Made my first pizza in the new pan. Turned out well, but it needed more dough, less sauce, and a little bit more time at 550. The pan twisted when I took the pizza out, but not before, and it went back to shape after cooling for a few minutes. It's quattro formaggi, with arugula, and a basic sauce I make based on Mario Batali's out of Lucky Peach, but with the carrot replaced with radish. Using tomatoes from the garden is great.

Made my first pizza in the new pan. Turned out well, but it needed more dough, less sauce, and a little bit more time at 550. The pan twisted when I took the pizza out, but not before, and it went back to shape after cooling for a few minutes. It's quattro formaggi, with arugula, and a basic sauce I make based on Mario Batali's out of Lucky Peach, but with the carrot replaced with radish. Using tomatoes from the garden is great.